1. Using medium heat, melt the stick of butter in the milk. Do not heat to boiling. Milk should only be warm enough to melt butter.

2. Place flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the center

3. Place egg yolks in the flour well.

3. Add milk/butter mixture. It should be warm enough to keep butter liquid but not hot enough to cook the eggs.

4. If desired, add a shot of whiskey

5. Using both hands, mix and kneed to thoroughly combine ingredients and make a ball

6. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for half an hour until the dough is no longer sticky. Dough must be kneaded for a minimum of half an hour. It should be soft.

7. Tear the soft dough into eight even pieces. Cover with a towel to keep dough from drying out.

8. Start to melt Crisco on low heat while rolling out and cutting chrusciki. Heat will be increased when first batch is ready to fry.

9. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to medium thin. (my note: about 1/8 inch thin). Try to roll into a large square.

10. Using a sharp knife, cut into 3 x 3 squares.

11. Take a whiskey glass or cap from a soda bottle. Make an imprint in the center of the square.

12. Make 8 cuts from the edge of the square up to the center imprint. Think of a pinwheel. Cut diagonally from each corner to the center. Between the diagonal cuts, cut to the center. (my note: The little diagram below isnt square, but was the best I could do to give an idea of the cuts and the center indentation. The cuts make the petals.)

\ | /- o -/ | \

13. Assemble three squares, one on top of the other. With the first square, wet the imprint in the center with a little water. Place the second square on top. Wet the center of the second square and place third square on top. lightly press center of three squares together. Cover completed squares with a towel to keep from drying out.

14. Turn up the heat on the oil. Cut a small piece of dough to test the oil. Put the dough in the oil. If it rises to the surface, the oil is hot enough. If the oil gets too hot, the chrusciki will get too brown and burn. (My note: keep oil at 375 degrees).

15. Warning: Be careful not to burn yourself. Submerge for about a minute until the chrusciki feels like it is ready to rise to the surface. Fork should still be easily removed. Use the tip of the fork and keep bobbing the chrusciki until it is lightly browned (about 2 minutes total).

15. Drain on a paper towel

16. The oil may need to be cleaned half way through since the flour on the chrusciki will make the oil murky. Use a sieve to drain the oil into another pot at add more Crisco as necessary so that there is enough to submerge the chrusciki.

17. When all chrusciki are fried and drained, use a sieve and dust with powdered sugar.

18. Drop 1/2 teaspoon of jelly in the center of the rosebud.

19. The rosebuds can be left uncovered on the counter. If covering, use aluminum foil so that chrusciki remains crispy.

The jelly can be any type, but at Christmas, the red and green color looks very festive.

Are you talking about Fattimands Bakkelser? My Norwegian grandmother used to make them every year for Christmas.

I never realized what she went through until my brother asked me to make them one year (using Grandmother's recipe). Oy. Never again! I told him to savor every bite, because I wasn't going through that again. I'll stick with the memory of Grandmother's perfectly made versions. :-)

The Swedish and other versions of rosettes, use a special iron for the shape.

No kidding about the work behind the chrusciki or Fattimands Bakkelser. I made the once ... once.

My mom always had to get psyched up to make these, sometimes staying up all night to make them. I still remember one all nighter where my dad and I decorated the tree, watched Bing Crosby's "Going My Way" then "A Christmas Carol" and nibbled on the chrusciki as they came out of the frier.

The recipe said knead 1/2 hour and I thought ... sure. No, it HAD to be kneaded that long. Thought I would die. Others suggested using a food processor, but even then these are major work.

Thanks so much for mentioning rosettes. I remember my mom calling them that sometimes, but they are not the same shape as other European rosettes.

I've always wondered where the unique shape of my mom's cookies came from. It didn't go back far because my grandmother's sister never knew how to make them. That side of the family was always trying to find out the secret to these.

I've searched for this on-line and every Polish cookbook I could find. When you said rosette I searched on that and Polish and found the first reference I've ever seen anywhere of something similiar.

The link below calls them RÓ&#379;E KARNAWA&#321;OWE (mardi Gras rosettes). Never heard that word before ... or farwoki, another name for chrusciki.

It is the only English description I could find on the web. There were not that many mentions in Polish either.

One more post. I'm just hyped that there are references to these cookies somewhere. I actually found some bad pictures. Bad because you can't really see the petals. Bad because my mom's were so much prettier and rose like.

The picture below has a mixture of the angel wings and rosettes.

The link has a plate of the karnawalowe, but, again, the petals don't really stand out.

Does anyone know of a recipe for chrusciki that uses stale ale in it. It is a very old Polish Recipe. My mother used to make them but she passed years ago and never wrote the recipe down. The were not made with whiskey or rum and they are a lot lighter and not as doughey in taste.